Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.15291/sic/2.12.lc.1
Exploring Mutilation: Women, Affect, and the Body Horror Genre
Carina Stopenski
; Chatham University, USA
Abstract
This paper discusses affect and body horror through the lens of abjection, specifically how we react to viscera and extremes of the body. Body horror’s usage of female protagonists creates a dichotomous space of both feminism and anti-feminism, agency and oppression. In this paper, the character archetype of the female mutilator is proposed as a foil to the final girl trope, one who takes back her power through explicit gore and violence. Using three key filmic texts (Nicholas Pesce’s The Eyes of My Mother, Richard Bates Jr.’s Excision, and Lucky McKee’s May), this paper approaches the concepts of abjection and the monstrous feminine as they converge at the feminine grotesque in order for the female mutilator to actualize her identity.
Keywords
affect, abjection, horror studies, film studies, body genres
Hrčak ID:
279343
URI
Publication date:
19.6.2022.
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